Guardian
by medicgirl
Summary: Eliot is missing and a strange girl has shown up with his bloody bandana. This can't possibly be good... OFC warning, NOT Eliot/OFC
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing remotely related to Leverage except a few DVDs and a Christian Kane CD. Any characters you recognize aren't mine, I'm just playing with them.

Even though it was two in the morning, Eliot Spencer was still awake when he heard the knock on his door. Switchblade in hand, he crept toward the door, trying not to give away his position in case the visitor wanted more than to borrow a cup of sugar. Which, of course, was most likely the case considering that it was two in the morning… He rolled his eyes at that train of thought. Who needs sugar at this hour?

A glance out the window revealed no vehicle, and he stepped to the side of the door. A quick flick of his wrist flung the door open as his finger hit the button on the switchblade. The knife dropped to his side as he saw who was standing on his doorstep. He was expecting trouble, he was expecting one of his team (except Parker, because she would never knock), but he wasn't expecting the slight girl with short brown hair and bruises on her face. "Alyssa? What…?"

Light blue eyes, more haunted than he wanted to think about, looked up to meet his. I need your help, El. They found me."

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"Again, has _any _of you heard from Eliot? A call, a text message? An email?"

Hardison snorted. "Nate, Eliot couldn't email if his life depended on it!"

"That's not true, Hardison," Sophie put in. "He's learned how to use a computer quite well in the last two years."

Nate rolled his eyes. "Eliot's computer skills are not in question here. His whereabouts are!"

Parker looked up from the rope and gigantic knot she was playing with. "What's the big deal? He's just not answering his phone. Or coming in when you demand his presence. Maybe he's on s job of his own. We all do it…" Her part said, she went back to untangling the knot. Earlier that week, she had been so bored that she was literally bouncing off the walls. Eliot had asked her for an expendable piece of rope. Twenty-five minutes later he had returned with a huge and very complicated knot. He handed it to her and said she couldn't get it untied in less than a week, then went back to his chess game with Nate, knowing full well she would take it as a personal challenge and untie it or die trying. She only had three days left…

Nate shook his head in frustration. "Of course you all do. But Eliot…" He paused, looking away briefly. How were they not getting it. "Eliot takes on side jobs sometimes, sure, but never without telling me. He says it's so I'll know where he is in case the team needs him, but it's also partly so if he ever doesn't come back, we know where to start looking. He has _never_ gone off the grid like this for three days without contacting one of us!"

Something in that statement clicked in their minds. Suddenly all three of them were staring at him, as if they finally comprehended what he was saying. Hardison was the first to speak. "You mean Eliot's… Missing? Like, Missing, missing? As in picture on a milk carton, missing?"

Parker's eyes were wide and frightened. "Or captured and tortured by the Russian mob, missing? Or the baker of Kiev, or whoever?"

Hardison rolled his eyes. "First off, it was the _butcher _of Kiev. And second, Eliot killed him, remember?"

She looked at him like he was slow. "So he can't have a brother who's a baker? And really pissed at Eliot for killing the butcher?"

Hardison shook his head as if her insane logic actually caused him pain. "And their third brother, the candlestick maker, he's the getaway driver?"

Parker looked at him strangely, but before she could reply, Sophie said "If he's in trouble, we have to find him!"

"Yeah!" Agreed Hardison. "Some of Eliot's enemies, they're not the nicest people in the world, so we might not have much time to get to him."

Nate didn't want to point out the semi-reassuring fact that when Eliot pissed people off, he tended to seriously piss them off. Generally more than a bullet to the head would make up for. If one of his enemies had Eliot, the good news was they probably had some time before they killed him. The bad news is that he would be in seriously rough hands until they did… "Okay, so let's find him. Parker, you go to his place. See if his truck is still there, if there's any sign of a struggle. Hardison, you do your thing, track his cell phone, credit cards for any of his aliases you know, anyone in his background that is suddenly in town, anything else you can figure out. Sophie-"

"I'll go down to that coffee shop Eliot likes to people-watch at. If anyone there has seen him in the last three days, they might know something."

Nate nodded, keeping his fear and the feeling in his stomach that something was just… _wrong_… under control only because his team was on it and his team was the best. Except this was a retrieval job. And he had the best retrieval specialist in the country, but this time he was the job, not part of the team. So while they were the best when whole… He didn't want to think about hole Eliot being missing left, or how they were going to get him back without a hitter.

Hardison had just parked himself in front of the computer to get his searches started when the front door opened again. Parker stuck her head back in the door. "Nate, there's a girl passed out in the hallway. Did you put her there?"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! They have meant the world! Keep it up:) For disclaimer see chapter one.

Even used to Parker's weirdness, that gave them a start. "Say what?" Said Hardison

Parker huffed, annoyed at having to repeat herself. "I said there's a girl passed out in the hallway. Did you put her there?"

Nate, Hardison, and Sophie looked at each other, then shot out of their seats and rushed for the door, Hardison and Sophie getting there at the same time and struggling a little to both get through first. A girl was laying in the hallway, sprawled forward, as if headed for their door. Ear-length brown hair covered her face, but it was something else that caught Hardison's attention. "Oh, hell…" He looked at Nate, a little green. "Nate, isn't that the bandana Eliot was wearing the other day?"

Sophie followed their eyes to the blood-splattered grey piece of cloth clutched in the girl's hand. Sure enough, the last time she had seen it, it had been holding Eliot's hair back. "Oh, my…"

Nate knelt down beside the girl, checking to see if she was breathing. Noticing that she was, he said "Help me turn her over."

They moved her to her back, and Sophie gasped. Bruises covered the girl's face, blood splattered her t-shirt and jeans. One eye was swollen shut, and a long, jagged cut tore along the length of her right forearm still dripping blood. Her breathing was shallow. "Let's get her inside," Nate said.

They picked her up and carried her back inside, laying her on the couch. Sophie picked up a washrag to clean away some of the blood, and at the first touch of the water, the girl shot up with a yell. She grabbed Sophie's wrist and shoved her backward onto the floor while jumping to her feet. Putting her hands up in front of her in what Nate could recognize as a fighting stance. "Who the hell are you?"

"Hey, it's okay, kid, just relax. My name is Nate. We don't want to hurt you. We're trying to help. What happened to you?"

Her eyes widened. "You're Nate Ford. I made it!"

Hardison looked at her confused. "Made it? Girl, you wanna tell us what you're doing with that?" He pointed to the bandana, which had fallen to the floor. "That's our friend's, and it's all bloody, and something bad has happened to him, so you'd better start talking!" He crossed his arms and tried to look menacing. And of course, failed.

She took a step forward toward Hardison when Parker stepped over in front of her. "Did you hurt Eliot?"

The girl dropped her attack mode and tilted her head looking at Parker. Sensing no threat, she sighed. "I didn't hurt Eliot. I have to rescue him and he said Nate Ford and the rest of his crew could help. So, that's you guys?"

Nate put a hand on Hardison's shoulder, and shook his head. _Stand down…_ "Yeah, that's us. Tell us everything. Starting with your name. And we'll get Eliot back." He sat down and motioned for her to do the same. After watching them for a moment, she sat back on the couch. Hardison leaned back against the counter. With no hesitation, Parker bounced up on the couch beside her. Sophie came back in with an ice pack. She took it and looked at it a minute. "My name is Alyssa. And this is Eliot's… base…?"

"Yeah," Parker said. "His office is just down the hall. Wanna see?"

Hardison gave her the usual "There's something wrong with you" look. "Parker!"

Alyssa regarded her. "Yeah, actually I do. I know he's got a medic kit stored in there somewhere, and I kinda need it. Show me, and I can talk while I stitch up my arm." Parker jumped up without a word and headed down the hallway, Alyssa right behind her. Hardison jumped up first to follow, but the rest were with them quickly. No one was really sure what to think about this girl, and they certainly didn't want her running around the office unsupervised. And Parker did NOT count as supervision.

She followed Parker into the office, and instantly began rummaging through the closet. "Hey! Exclaimed Nate. "What-" He cut off as she pulled out Eliot's medic kit. After rummaging through it for a minute, she pulled out the suture pack.

As she set it up, she started talking. "I had a problem and went to Eliot. But they were ready for us. They took us both down, captured us. Eliot made a distraction so I could get away, told me to come and get you guys, that you could help me rescue him." She threaded the needle and lowered it to her arm.

"Hey, wait, you're gonna do that yourself?" Hardison asked, looking a little green. "Not even gonna numb it or anything?"

She looked confused. "Well, I ain't going to a hospital, so not much in the way of choices here."

Nate stepped up, carefully, noting how skittish the girl seemed. If they scared her off, they had no way of finding Eliot. "Hang on, kid. How are you going to do that left-handed?"

"I'm ambidexterous. You got a better plan?"

He put out a hand. "Well, Eliot has taught me a few things. I can do it for you…" She seemed reluctant, and he took another step forward. Meeting slightly narrowed blue eyes, he said softly "Eliot trusts us. Trust me enough to let me help him patch up his wounds."

It seemed to be enough, because she shrugged and held out the needle. She still made no move for the lidocaine, seemingly taking a page from Eliot's book, and he didn't push it. Just simply held out her arm. To her credit, she never flinched as he put seven stitches in her arm then carefully bandaged it. She almost smiled. "Thanks." She flexed her fingers, checking mobility, then looked up at Nate. "We can go get Eliot now?"

"Whoa, now, hold on!" Exclaimed Hardison. "We don't just run headfirst into a bad situation! Nate, he makes plans, and we have back-up plans, and back-ups for the back-ups. We don't go off half-cocked like this!"

Her eyes suddenly full of fire, she took a step toward Hardison, who stepped back in alarm. "Eliot is there because of me. He risked his life and made it so much worse on himself to let me go. And I am not going to sit here and make plans and backup plans and backups for the backups while they're doing God knows what to him! You don't know what they did to him, to us, while we were there and he made me leave. Said I couldn't do this myself, that his team would help me. So help me, dammit!"

"Alyssa, sit down. Please." Nate said quietly. "And let me explain this the best I can. Eliot is the best in the business, would you agree?"

She stared at Hardison for a moment, still angry, but finally turned to Nate and nodded. "Of course he is!"

Nate motioned for the chair, and after a defiant moment, she sat, staring at him for further explanation. "Now, kid, if these guys got him, then they are damn good too. We go busting in there like a bad John Wayne movie, they get us too. That means two things, tactically. Number one, there's no one left to rescue Eliot. Number two, the bad guys have a shiny new toy to mess with Eliot." He looked her in the eye, compassion showing clearly. "Now, if Eliot made it harder on himself to get you free, you must mean something to him, right?" She nodded slowly. "Okay, if you know Eliot, what's going to be harder on him? What they're doing to him now, or being forced to watch while they do it to you or us?"

He could see as the truth to his words sink in to her expression. She closed her eyes for a minute, breathed deeply, then set her face in an expression that looked so familiar. "Okay. You got my attention. We do it your way, we get Eliot back?"

Nate sat on the corner of Eliot's desk and crosses his arms. "You have my word." He stands, the fearless leader again. "Now. Let's-"

"Are you going to say go steal Eliot?" Parker asked. "Because that's just wrong."

Nate looked hurt. "Of course not. They already stole him. Let's go re-steal Eliot."


	3. Chapter 3

Warning: I wasn't planning on having Eliot make another appearance until the rescue, but he just wouldn't shut up and behave so I had to put this in. Warning for a minor torture scene. Nothing graphic, just people being generally rough on our boy. Really rough on him... So you have been warned.

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews and the alerts and the following! You guys are awesome! Please keep letting me know how I'm doing. I am more than capable of screwing this up big time, so keep the feedback coming:) Please? Us Kaniacs have to stick together and all, right?

After three hours, the team had fallen into their roles easily, as if preparing for any other job. Nate had gotten all the information he could out of Alyssa, and while it wasn't as much as he would have liked, it was enough. He knew the where, the who, the number of the bad guys involved, and the layout. What he couldn't find out was the why. When he asked, it wasn't pretty.

Alyssa jumped from the couch, fire burning in her eyes. "I told you already! They were after me, and I went to Eliot for help, and then they had trank darts and we woke up there!" She paced for a moment, then turned back to Nate angrily. "Why doesn't matter! I've told you everything you need to know, so let's go get him out!" When no one moved or did anything but turn to Nate, she tensed her arms, hands in fists, and turned to throw a punch into the drywall, which Nate deflected at the last second.

"You need to do that, there's a punching bag downstairs. In fact, that seems like a good idea. You go beat the crap out of something and when we have a plan, we'll get you, brief you, and then we'll rescue Eliot."

She stared at him quizzically for a moment, then said softly, "How did you know I was going to do that?"

Nate shrugged, trying to hide a small smile. "It's exactly what Eliot would have done."

That got Hardison's attention. "You a hitter, too?"

She almost grinned at that. "Hitter? I like that… Is that what you call Eliot? A hitter?"

Hardison nodded. "Yeah."

She returned his nod. "Then yeah, I'm a hitter too."

"Good," said Nate. "Are you any good?"

She looked indignant, but understood the question. "Eliot taught me everything."

Hardison looked at Nate, then shrugged. "Then I'd say she's good."

Nate nodded. "Excellent. Because we're gonna need a hitter to rescue our hitter. Now, Eliot trains in the basement, second door over there. Go warm up, do what you like, don't break anything, either you or the equipment. I promise, we won't be much longer."

She studied him. "You make a lot of promises, Mr. Ford. You're gonna have to start delivering on them soon."

His voice softened. "Eliot trusts me, Alyssa. Up 'til now, it's been enough. Is it going to be enough this time?"

She considered it, looking him directly in the eye, gaze travelling to Hardison, Parker, Sophie, then back to Nate. "I guess so. For now." She turned and headed for the basement.

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Blood trailed down Eliot Spencer's ribs from where the skin had split under the beating he had taken. Again. He had lost track of the number of separate beatings in the last two days. He pulled again at the handcuffs pinning his arms to the pipe over his head, leaving him not only trapped but vulnerable, unable to protect himself. The pain was bad enough, but he had been in this position before and it never ended well. He pulled even harder when a bucket of ice-cold water was splashed over him, shivering violently in the cold as he strained up on his toes to keep the pressure off his shoulders. A trademark Eliot Spencer snarl curled his lip as he looked on the familiar face of his tormentor. "Got a bit of a cliché' going on here, son," he said. "I've seen this in every bad movie ever made. What comes next? Gonna lay a battery charger to me? Or pull out my fingernails unless I talk? You're wasting your time, you know I won't talk."

The man was a good four inches taller than Eliot , but not as well built. In a fair fight, it would be no contest. _Had_ been no contest, the last two times Eliot had taken him on. Apparently the guy had finally gotten smart. Eliot liked him better stupid. He shook his head, smiling. "No, while I do have a fondness for the classics, this isn't about making you talk, Eliot. No, I do know you well enough to know that no matter what I do to you, you'll never tell me where the girl went, will you?"

Eliot growled, hatred searing from his ice-blue eyes. "You'll never touch her again!"

The man laughed. "Oh, that's where you're wrong, and I think you know that. You're just trying to comfort yourself, that your martyr-stunt you pulled letting her escape actually was worth it. But you know she'll try to rescue you. You've been her hero far too long for her not to do the same stupid thing you would. So no, I'm not gonna try to make you tell me where she is. But she'll be back. And while you will be punished, severely, for attacking my guards and letting her get away, you will still be alive when she gets here. And conscious enough to watch her die." He raised a wicked-looking machete and turned to the small metal container on the table, lighting a fire. Eliot's eyes never left the blade as it began to glow red-hot.

Carefully controlling his expression, continuing his brutal glare, he silently thought "Please, Nate, keep her safe. Even if it means leaving me behind." He wished he had told Nate about the girl… Then all coherent thought left him as his world exploded in pain.

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Sophie was on Nate in an instant. "You can't possibly be planning on bringing that _child_ with us on this job? Let alone have her doing Eliot's job?" He didn't answer her. "Nate? You can't be serious, can you?"

Parker nodded. "I like her."

"Well, of course, you like her! She'd make an excellent playmate! But we're are talking about taking down people dangerous enough to take Eliot. With a girl who may or may not even drive yet!"

"She's not as young as you think, Sophie. I'd bet anything on it." Nate purposely didn't answer her question, as the answer was obvious even before she asked.

"I'd say maybe seventeen," Hardison put in. "Did she tell you how she knew Eliot? Maybe she's like… his long-lost daughter or something… If she's seventeen, then Eliot was eighteen or nineteen when she was born… it could work."

"Wasn't he in Croatia then?" Added Parker. "She doesn't look half-Croatian…"

"Do you even know what a half-Croatian looks like?"

"Nate?" Sophie repeated, begging him with her eyes. "Please don't do this…"

Nate finally turned to her. "Look, I don't like it either, but like it or not we need her. She knows exactly where he is being held, knows the layout of the place. She escaped it, remember. And She knew where Eliot would hide his medic bag, was willing to stitch up her own arm, threw a punch just like Eliot would and it hurt like hell when I blocked it. Wish I had just made her fix the wall like I do Eliot. And frankly, guys, for this job, we need someone and if we try to ditch her, she'll try to do it on her own and that's what Eliot was trying to avoid. If she'll go anyway, she might as well go with us. Understood?"

Parker nodded instantly, and Hardison a moment later. Sophie pursed her lips, grasping for something, anything, to argue with. But she had nothing. Nate was right, as usual. It was the most infuriating thing about the man. Finally she nodded. "Okay," he said. "Parker, go get the girl. Do not startle her, assume that would be as dangerous as startling Eliot, ok?" She headed for the basement. "And I still think she is way older than you guys think…"


End file.
